Pro-nafta Voice Unheard

Trade Interests Silent As Agriculture Dominates

September 26, 1993|By CHARLES LUNAN Business Writer

Few places have benefited more from growth in international trade than South Florida. Booming trade with Latin America and the Caribbean is creating thousands of jobs in and around the region's three deep-water ports.

Yet as the congressional debate over the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement gathers steam, the voice of free trade has gone largely unheard in South Florida.

Agricultural interests continue to dominate the NAFTA debate in Florida. On Monday, Florida's fruit and vegetable growers and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Bob Crawford launched a media blitz to defeat the pact. "It's a flawed agreement," said Crawford. "It's 1,140 pages, but it doesn't have any pages to help Florida like it helps others."

A poll of South Florida's 10 congressmen indicates opponents may have already won the debate. Six of eight U.S. representatives have announced their opposition to the proposed treaty.

"I am truly on the fence," Shaw said on Friday. His district includes the Port of Miami, Port Everglades and the Port of Palm Beach, but very little agriculture.

"There is no agriculture I know of in my district that would be affected," he said. Still, Shaw, the owner of a Dania nursery, thinks the agreement poses many threats to Florida's economy, particularly the citrus and vegetable industry. Shaw has been lobbied to support NAFTA by South Florida's electronics industry and the Port of Miami, but has heard from few other supporters, he said.

He supports efforts to delay the phasing out of U.S. tariffs on Mexican citrus exports.

"We are trying to delay implementation on citrus so investors in young trees get their money back," he said.

Shaw serves on the trade subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee, which could attempt to amend the agreement in hearings that begin this week. Significant amendments could easily scuttle the agreement, Mexican officials have said.

International trade now rivals tourism as Florida's top industry. It employed an estimated 617,000 people last year, up 40 percent from 1987, according to James Call, spokesman for the Florida Department of Commerce.

Exports to Mexico grew 14 percent to $592 million last year but remain a small fraction of overall trade. Port officials are eager to boost the numbers by capturing more of the U.S.-Mexican trade now flowing through northern ports.

Peak employment in agriculture rose 50 percent during that time to 127,000, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture. Palm Beach County is the top agricultural county in Florida and one of the top five in the country based on crop values, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

A canvassing of a half dozen trade organizations in South Florida revealed none has lobbied Shaw or any of his congressional colleagues to support the trade pact. "We have done nothing and have nothing planned," said Bernie Budd, president of the Port Everglades Association, which represents about 120 businesses in or around Port Everglades. "There has been no pressure from the businesses."

The Broward Economic Development Council has passed a resolution supporting NAFTA, but little else, said Lou Sandora, director of international marketing.

"I'm not aware of any Broward groups that have taken up alms," said Sandora. "Everybody is groping about, but I don't know of anyone who has contacted politicians."

Even the Florida International Affairs Commission, created by the Florida Legislature in 1990 to formulate foreign policy for the state, has been silent on the issue.

The agency has not had a leader since the resignation of its executive director five months ago. The new director, Nat Turnbull of Orlando, will take office next week.

Contacted on Friday, Turnbull said the Florida Department of Commerce would likely continue leading the pro-NAFTA charge in Florida. Commerce Secretary Greg Farmer and Gov. Lawton Chiles have been the state's most visible proponents of the agreement.

But both have been distracted by other issues during the last week, conceded James Call, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Commerce.

Farmer has been busy trying to convince foreign newspapers that travel in Florida remains safe despite the separate murders two weeks ago of a British tourist and a German tourist.

Chiles, meanwhile, has been focusing on a special session of the Legislature that will examine Florida's workers' compensation crisis. Pro-NAFTA forces said the battle over NAFTA has barely begun. "The pro-NAFTA campaign is just getting started," Call said. "The anti-NAFTA opponents have been on stage by themselves. You can expect an increase in activity."